This invention relates to motor assemblies and, more particularly, to such an assembly wherein the rotor subassembly is self-aligning with respect to the stator subassembly.
The MULTISENSOR angular rate sensing assembly manufactured and sold by GEC-Marconi Electronic Systems Corporation of Wayne, New Jersey, assignee of the present invention, utilizes a synchronous hysteresis motor (see FIG. 1) for spinning the gyroscopic element of the sensor assembly. It is critical to the proper operation of this device that the spin axis of the gyroscopic element be properly aligned so that output signal noise due to shaft wobble is minimized. This wobble is caused by misalignment between the inner diameter of the bearing inner races and the rotor shaft and misalignment between the outer diameter of the bearing outer races and the stator support, which causes elliptical orbits of the shaft with respect to the reference features of the MULTISENSOR angular rate sensing assembly which are fixed in inertial space.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a motor assembly wherein the bearings, the rotor subassembly shaft and the stator subassembly are self-aligning.